English Ivy Bonsai (One Dollar Bonsai)

Ciao Bella! For this post I am just going to talk about a cool Ivy start that I recently acquired. I got it at the nursery where I take my bonsai class, which I recently started going to again. I was looking at the discount section of the nursery. I usually do not find anything really to speak of, but this time was different. After looking for about thirty seconds, I saw some Ivy in a four inch pot. The leaves were yellow, but it didn't look too bad, and I saw potential. The total cost for it was a whopping $1.08! That same weekend, I got a nice pumice container from my sister's adoptive grandma. Here are some pictures.

Pumice Pot

 These are the before photos that I took. As you can see the leaves look a yellowish-green. The Plant was doing better than when I got it though. I didn't do much, besides cutting some of the dead wood off.
 This is the Needlepoint Variety of English Ivy. They have a different leaf shape than regular ivy, and also is not really invasive, unlike most types. This is so because the aerial roots don't dig into the trees they grow on, therefor not damaging it. Just a fun fact. Here are some pictures of the plant after I planted and wired it.

 I personally think it looks pretty good! Hope the pictures are good enough. As you can (hopefully) see, I wired the two main branches, and made them cascade over the tall pot. This is a good look for ivy, and since ivy is a vine, this also plays to the way the ivy will grow. Eventually the Ivy will just flow over the container. That's my plan anyways. In the future I might remove one of the branches so there is just one main branch, though I am not sure.
Quick care tips: Ivy likes to be dry for the most part. Don't over-water. Though if your's is outdoors, and it rains frequently, it probably won't hurt the plant, though Ivy is prone to fungal disease in soaked soil. I live in Washington, and Ivy grows (literally) like a weed here. Though it is not the Needlepoint variety. Ivy also likes shade. try to put it somewhere away from the sun, you could use a north facing window, or if it's outdoors, put it underneath a shady tree (or something like one). The one thing that worries me about this bonsai are the roots, the roots took up quite a bit of the space, so I was not able to put a lot of soil for some of it. I am worried that the roots will get too much air. We will have to wait and see.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked my post, sorry that it was kind of long. I hope it was at least slightly interesting, and that you learned something! Please share this with someone, weather it be friend,foe, a guy you met at a bookstore, whoever! I will come out with a new post next week, so come back then! Bye!

Fungi Basics: Mushrooms

             Hello there! for this post I will be talking about the fundamentals of fungi, or, the fungimentals (was worth a shot). There are so many things with fungi, and there are so many different types of fungi, but for this post I will be talking mostly about fruiting fungi, or mushrooms. Alright well lets dive in!
           
             Lets start below and work our way up. Most fungi start out with Hyphae, which are like very small threads that grow and branch out. when Hyphae grow bigger and connect, they make up mycelium, which in mushrooms, serve mainly as the roots of the mushroom.

Oyster mushroom ( Pleurotus ostreatus)growing in coffee grounds

In some fungi, they have a fruit to help spread it's spores, which are like the seeds of a fungi. the fruit is known as a mushroom. The mushrooms can be identified many different ways, some of which being color, texture,anatomy (e.g. gills, cap), and even taste ( usually only if fairly sure).

mushrooms can look very different, while others can look very similar. It's not always easy to tell a poisonous mushroom from a choice edible one. I like to refer to a field guide. I use the "National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms". it is very easy to use, and has many different mushrooms. It gives a brief description of the mushroom, whether it is edible, poisonous, or hallucinogenic, where it is located, season, and even look-alikes! Never eat a mushroom if you are not 100% sure on what it is.

Mushrooms have multiple parts, such as the stalk, which is the part of the fruit the goes from the ground up to the cap, the gills, which are the underneath of the cap, where the spores are stored, a ring, which is underneath the cap on the stalk, and looks like an extra layer of "skin" and the volva, which is where the mushroom sprout from the ground. not every mushroom has all these things. most shelf fungi don't have spores, for example.

              Thanks for reading! I will probably edit this post, to add more information has it occurs to me. Please share this with a friend or someone you know, hopefully one who likes plants and mycology! I will come up with a new post next week, until then, Ciao!

Bonsai: Trimming Chinese elm

A little crazy, Eh?

Hey guys, sorry for the late post, this week is spring break and I've been super busy. But better now than never, right? So for this post I trimmed a Chinese Elm Bonsai that I got as a gift a couple years ago. Sadly, I got uninterested in Bonsai, and didn't pay enough attention to the ones I had, so many perished. But this
Elm was a fighter. It was not doing too bad, besides needing a trim,and some tlc.

Giant dead branch, needed to go

Before

 The first thing I did was get rid of any dead branches, which besides the giant one (pictured left) there were not many of.

Before

Before

The second step was getting rid of branches that crossed each other (just get rid of one) and branches that went straight up. If there were any that went straight down, you would want to get rid of those ones as well, though on this tree I didn't see any. then you just want to trim any new growth back, especially in parts that you don't want to see growth in (duh). So if you didn't want the tree getting taller, than you would trim the top branches.

After

After

After

After

Leftovers

After

Before

It may not look that much different, but this "little" trimming not only makes the bonsai look neater and more aesthetic, but also redirects where all the plants energies are going. This in turn lets the tree focus on things it has, and not focus on things like dead growth (which would be counter-productive), and new growth (which would make it bigger). All in all, this makes the tree healthier.

Thanks for reading, come back next week for a new post, please share this with a friend, or anyone who might be interested, and Plant on!

Succulent Terrarium

 Ciao! This post I'm going to just talk about a succulent terrarium that I made. Let me just start off by saying that this was a really fun project, and I also loved the way it turned out! All Together, I spent less than 20 dollars. The succulents cost 10 dollars, the decorative gravel cost 50 cents, the terrarium I had from some pet fish,the soil, gravel, and charcoal I already had.







The terrarium was pretty dirty, so I just rinsed it off outside,and it was good as new!

Before

after

after

before

Ta-Da!

Then I just Followed the instructions from my DIY Terrariums post, which you can find Here (click on this) . I also used a very porous soil, as to make it well-draining, which succulents need. It took a total of maybe an hour or two, but it was worth it! The end result was a cool looking terrarium that could add some pizzazz to an apartment or home, and was really affordable! Comment if you have any questions or would like me to elaborate on something. Feel free to share this with friends, family, coworkers, bosses, presidents, kings, well, you get the gist. Come back next weekend for another legendary post on either plants or mycology; Bye!

Sourdough Starter How-to

When we think of bread/bread-making, we think of bakers who went to apprenticeship programs and have probably spent years honing their skill. But anyone with the right recipe, a little practice, and a little finesse, can learn to bake bread that might make you surprised.

I don't know about you, but I've always thought it was cool to be able to do something on my own; especially something that most people didn't and/or weren't able to do. It's just cool to be able to be independent in that way. Cooking from scratch is one of those things. To be able to can your own fruit, make your own jerky, or even get your own milk is in my opinion, very satisfying. Baking bread is also in this category. For this blog post, I'm going to be talking about starting a sourdough starter for making (you guessed it!) sourdough bread.

Now, just what is a sourdough starter? A sourdough starter is mixture of yeast and bacteria that is added to the bread dough mix to A) help the dough rise, and B) add a unique flavor to the bread. One of the by-products of yeast is carbon dioxide, which is a gas, which makes the dough rise as it gets filled with the gas.

How does this all go into plants and mycology? Well, yeast is a type of fungus, if you didn't already know! There are actually 1,500 different currently know species of Yeasts; and Yeasts are also used in the making of beer, wine, and sodas as well.

Now you're probably either going "Wow, that's actually pretty cool!", or "Blah blah blah just get to the how-to already!". I understand. Without further ado, here it is.

Materials

For this Sourdough starter, you will need 

1)Container of some sort (could be a jar,or even a plastic cup that's a good size)

2)Some way of measuring out things ( a Dixie cup, a measuring cup, pretty much anything)

3)All-purpose flour

4)DeChlorinated water, at a tepid temperature

A quick note on the water; you don't want the water to be too hot, as it will kill the yeast and bacteria that land there. You also want to dechlorinate it. You can do this simply by boiling the water for 20 minutes, or letting the water sit out overnight.

For simplicity, I'm just going to pretend to use Dixie cups.

Steps

1) Fill the Dixie cup with the flour, pour into the container

2) Fill the Dixie cup with The water, pour into the container

3) Mix the flour and water thoroughly

4) Place on a Somewhat sunny windowsill

5) Feed the mix every 12 hours. (it's okay if you forget, just feed it the next time)

5) Repeat this process for at least 2-3 days, it should start smelling a little sour/funky after that amount of time

6) Once you think it's got that good sourdough smell, You can use it to bake some sourdough bread!! 

You can find many sourdough bread recipes in cookbooks, and on the internet, but let me know if you guys would like to see a recipe post in the comments!

Please make sure to +1 this if you liked it (Heck, even if you didn't!) and make sure to share with friends, family, or anyone who might be interested! I make a post every weekend, so make sure to come back next week for a cool blog post!

As always, thank you for reading, sharing, and just taking the time to click on this link. byyyeee!

Fictional Fungi

                Believe it or not, there have been multiple uses of Fungi and mushrooms in pop culture. From video games to literature, Fungi has made appearances.  In this blog post, I am going to be talking about some of the ones from various video games, books, and movies.

  Goomba- Goombas are a sentient mushroom animal from the Mario video games. They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and are modeled after the Shiitake mushroom.











Mutant Cordyceps- This Fungus appears in the Video game The Last of Us as a mutated strain of the real fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It turns the human host into a cannibalistic monster. I'm planning on making a post in the future on the fungi this is based on.


Toad- Another character From Mario, Toad is both the name of a character, and the people of the mushroom kingdom. I'm not sure what type of mushroom he is, but personally I think he looks like a reverse fly agaric.










Firewalker Fungus- This fictional fungus appeared on the x files episode Firewalker. In the episode, it is a silicon based Fungus that once inside the host, can affects it's behavior, until when ready to reproduce, which it then sends a fruiting body out through the throat. Pretty gruesome...



Mi-Go- Mi-Go are a race of extra-terrestrial, fungoid, crustacean-like creatures in the novel Cthulhu Mythos. They first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novel The Whisperer in Darkness. In my professional opinion, they are pretty rad looking.






Well that's about it. I know that there are other fictional Fungi, but these are some of the most popular ones, or the ones I thought was the most interesting. I hope you enjoyed reading this! I make a post every week,usually on a Saturday,Sometimes on Fridays or Sundays. If you liked this post,be sure to come back next week,and maybe tell a friend if you think they might be interested, or just +1 it! Thanks for reading, see ya!

Terrariums Update

 Yo! So in my first post, I showed you guys some terrariums that were a little less than a month old. In this post I'm just going to give an update on my strawberry/sedum terrarium, and my english ivy terrarium. In the strawberry/sedum one, I put a strawberry runner that I took from a plant in my front yard. I also got a sedum cutting from there. They both are doing well. the sedum has many new sprouts, and I may move it to another container in the future.

The ivy cuttings have grown a lot since I planted them. I started them a week after I made the above terrarium. For the cuttings I took off some twigs from the plant in my backyard. I then made a diagonal cut on one side (the side that I was going to stick in the ground). I also removed all leaves, so the cuttings could spend all their energy on just getting established. I didn't use a rooting hormone, though I highly suggest that you do for any cuttings that you do in the future. It's been about a month and a half, and they both have new growth! One took a lot longer than the other, and I actually was thinking of throwing it out soon. Good thing I didn't!

For taking care of them, there was not much to it. I kept them on a west facing window, though south-facing works well too. I opened them up every once in a while to dry out, though not very often, I mist them maybe about once a week or so, pretty much whenever I think they need it.
You really do not want to let your terrariums get too moist, as that can lead to a growth of unwanted fungus (mold). To get rid of mold, just let the terrarium dry out, and try to remove parts with mold in it.

I think that's about it! I want to try and make a mushroom terrarium (tutorial?) sometime hopefully soon. I make posts about every weekend, I try to get them out on Friday or Saturday most of the time, so please check in then! Any-who, thanks for reading and good luck on any plant/mycology adventures!